The present disclosure relates to a system and a process for depositing a metallic material on a substrate.
Additive manufacturing processes are able to deposit metallic materials to add features on existing work pieces for repair operations and to create near net shape work pieces through solid free form fabrication. The current additive manufacturing systems employ a variety of technologies including lasers, electron beams, wire feed stock, powder delivery systems, and powder beds. These systems all share the common characteristic of a molten melt pool to effect deposition of new material on a substrate. The microstructure of a weld deposited metal mass frequently has inherent defects in the form of thermally induced residual stress, fusion bond line flaws, micro cracking, and epitaxial growth of grains. The material properties of such weld deposited metal mass nominally exceed those of castings, but typically fall short of wrought material.